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Sunday, 14 January 2018

Pattern Cutting and Garment Construction - Week 1

I've begun the year bravely, and started an evening course! It's at my local technology college and is called Clothes Design - Pattern Cutting and Garment Construction.I tried to sign up to this course years ago, but on the day I was supposed to start it was cancelled due to lack of interest. I looked for it a few times afterwards, but it was never running. I stumbled upon it by accident this time, I hadn't really been thinking about clothes making lately. However, I'm not sure how often it actually runs, after my last experience, so I had a bit of a feeling of "it's now or never!" - possibly a bit dramatic, as I'm sure there would be plenty of courses I could sign up for at various places over the years to come!With the wedding coming up, I did wonder whether it was a good idea to have another thing on my plate, but it's only 2 hours one night a week, for 10 weeks. I think there will be a bit of work to do at home too, but that's surely manageable. We shall see!My GoalsWhat I hope to achieve from this course is more knowledge and skills with regards to sewing clothes. I am especially interested in the fitting aspect of the sewing - making garments fit my body shape. I want to have skills that I can use in the future to make my own clothes that actually fit me well - rather than trying to find clothes in the shops which never seem to look right. In this way, I might be able to design and make my own garments, or know how to alter existing patterns to fit me better.You can read in a post from 2014 how much trouble I had trying to make a simple top fit me! It's funny reading that now - so many changes since then... The pictures show my old hallway with brown carpet and granny wallpaper, before it was decorated. More importantly, that post references my ex-boyfriend... and I'm now getting married to someone else! Funny old life!Anyway, on to my first lesson which I completed this week. We sewed some seam samples... (these are just using scraps of calico, so are a bit scrappy)...Open Seam

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Front

I've sewn many open seams before, so this wasn't tricky. However, I've never overlocked the edges - this was my first time using an overlocker. They create such a neat professional finish, but went so much faster than I expected! The first press on the peddle created this...

... it just flew away from me! And it cuts as it goes, so there is no unpicking and correcting it! I started again with that sample, which was the welt seam...Welt Seam

Back

For this seam, instead of pressing the two ends open (as with the first seam) you overlock them together and press them to the side. You then top stitch over to keep it secured to the side.

If I was doing this again properly I'd probably top stitch nearer to the overlocked edge - or maybe have less of a seam allowance when I sewed the initial seam line. Apparently it's up to you where you top stitch, depending on what you are making and your personal preference.Felled (or Flat) Seam

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For this seam, when you sew your two pieces of fabric together initially, you have one edge poking out more than the other, rather than lining them up evenly. You then fold the longer piece over the shorter piece, enclosing the raw edge of the shorter piece. You then fold it all over to one side, enclosing the raw edge of the longer piece. Then you top stitch this down with a stitch close to the edge of the folded flap. (This is probably better explained elsewhere online!!)

Front

I think this could be more neat and even - but I suppose it's ok for a first attempt. If the fabric wasn't so see-through it probably would look better too!Altering the Volume of a SleeveWe also started work on how to alter the volume of a sleeve. We took some sleeve blocks and traced them onto pattern paper. We then had to mark the elbow line and split the upper arm section - above that line - into four pieces, flaring them out. We stuck this to another piece of pattern paper, and rounded off the pattern lines at the top, where they had been fanned out. We didn't get much time to do anything more than that - so I'm not sure whether we'll be continuing that next week or not.New Things- Sewing a welt seam- Sewing a felled seam- Overlocking- Seeing/using a sleeve blockConsidering that this was the first lesson and we also had to do the usual induction type things, I thought we covered quite a bit.HomeworkThe aim is to complete the course with a finished shirt or blouse. We should be thinking about what we'd like that to look like, and gathering inspiration before the next lesson. The teacher wants us to all end up with an garment that we will actually want to wear, so she is quite flexible about what we make - it could be a dress - but would like it to have a collar and sleeves, so that we are challenging ourselves and learning some technical skills. That sounds good to me! Although, I'm not sure what I want to make... I've no idea! Better get researching, I suppose...

2 comments:

Very exciting! I keep seeing all these beautiful and fun fabric thinking how fun it would be to wear something made from them. I am glad this course is running this time. Looking forward to see your new outfit! xxx

I hope I do end up with something to wear! The lessons go so quickly, and I can't see me finishing a garment by the end - but I should have the skills to use in the future - I learn a bit more each week! xxx